YUSU have released the final candidate list for the 2012 YUSU elections with over 50 candidates standing in what is expected to be a competitive few weeks.

In the hotly contested race for YUSU President both the Vanbrugh College Chair from last year, Kallum Taylor, and the previous Goodricke Chair, Nacho Hernando, have put themselves forward along with: Abir Ahmmed, James Carney, Thomas Stuart Taylor, Zahra Latif and Peter Warner-Medley – who ran for the position of Welfare Officer two years ago.

Bob Hughes, the incumbent Welfare Officer, and Graeme Osborn, the incumbent Academic Officer, have both submitted their application to run for a second year. This follows the success of Tim Ngwena and Sam Asfahani in clinching a second term in recent years.

Other highlights see a three-way battle for the position of Student Activities Officer between Hannah Brearley, Helen Marrison and Chris West.

The rumours of Ben McGladdery re-running for the position of York Sport President have been confirmed as unfounded, leaving the contest to be a straight fight between Charlotte Winter and Dong-Oh Shin.

There are four candidates standing for the position of International Officer and five for Volunteering Officer.

Nearly all the candidates attended the ‘Candidate briefings’ which were held on Friday evening and Saturday afternoon last week. At the briefings, the election rules were outlined and an election budget of £30 for full-time officers and £15 for part-time was announced, along with strict rules for campaigning both online and on campus.

Over 60 candidates initially nominated themselves for YUSU Officer positions, however several have withdrawn their candidacy over the weekend leaving 54 to compete over the next few weeks.

Hustings for the sabbatical and part-time positions will be this Thursday at 6:30pm in L/N/028, with campaigning officially opening on Friday for just under two weeks.

so two joke candidates (ahmmed and taylor), two ex college chairs (taylor and hernando), a radical (carney), a course rep (latif) and a failed welfare candidate (warner-medley). actually reads like an interesting race for once!

There aren’t many things more embarrassing than joke candidates that aren’t funny. It’s not like you tell a bad joke, people cringe and you move on. You essentially are a bad joke for about two weeks – brave, brave people.

Osborne has not done his job this year. We all had high hopes, but he’s not followed them through. He palms work off to other officers, theres not been a single big academic campaign. Without YUSUs brilliant staff students would have had very little academic support this year.

I was a big fan of Graeme, but he’s not lived up to the hype. He’s an embarrassment to the work that Ben & Charlie started. Time to move over and give someone else a go I say.

TST for every conceivable public office, now and forever! An expanded Nightline, a completed Library and a real challenge to Censorship. Real, tangible and deliverable objectives by a serious candidate running a subversive campaign. His ability to have some fun whilst competing in a student election shows both his humanity and the sheer breadth of his capabilities.

@Anon. Bystander – I think you might have misinterpreted my policy, which is by no means a key one.

My aim would be to make sure that the Union has in mind the idea that it needs to debate and discuss whether acquiring a venue, as a long long-term goal, would tackle the issues concerning social space and equipment.

I would definitely agree that it would be impossible to see this achieved within a year.

Feel free to get in contact if you have any other questions about my polices =)

Definitely loving James Carney’s promise of less policy more advocacy. the poem highlights that the president can’t promise anything because when he comes to power there is none, well at least thats what i read into it anyway. shoot me if i’m wrong.

Peter Warner-Medley running could be the best thing for this union right now. Of all the candidates, he has the most comprehensive knowledge of how YUSU works and the most experience. Not to mention the fact that he would run for such a major posititon after this student population denied him (however fairly) another one shows how committed he really is. It might just be “student politics” to most of us, but we’re all paying for this union, and to me he stands out as the best guy to run it.

While everybody’s focused on the president, the other sabb positions are looking to be a decent fight too.
Especially Welfare. Hughes is going to be hard to beat but I don’t think the other two are going down without a fight.

While everybody’s focused on the president, the other part-time positions are looking to be a messy fight which will be good to see unfold.

In particular, i can’t believe International Officer has got so much competition this year. Although, personally I believe Anstey and Chawla are the hot favourites and most experienced, Vasiliauskaite is sure to be a tough opponent with her backing. I believe the fight is between these two candidates (or three if we are being technical).

Woman’s officer looks like a walk over for Hawkens as well. It shouldnt be too hard for her to trump the other candidate(s). Their policies are very weak in comparison.

Campaigns should go to Dilks and Cross, i believe they are the strongest candidates. And R.E.O should go to Choto and Banerjee as they are pretty strong as a team.

Looking forward to question time tomorrow. They are the external faces of the union. Being able to speak publicly well and answer questions is a key part of the role. WIll go a long way to seeing who is favourite. Looking forward particularly to Carney elaborating on his manifesto.

…About Hawkens. Especially seeing as one of the candidates admitted in Liberation and Welfare Assembly she’d never heard of WomCom until a couple of weeks ago. Hastily doing her research just so she can run for the position despite no real personal interest in women’s issues? I think so…

Everyone leans towards Brearley, but I’m starting to think Marrison might be a better option. Sometimes experience that hasn’t come from within YUSU is exactly what the Union needs (see; Ngwena, Ellis, Scarlett etc). Brearley would be the perfect candidate for the old SDC position, but it doesn’t exist anymore, and I’m not convinced about her Student Activities relevant experience. Marrison was secretary of one of the busiest societies in York, and one of the most recognised nationally, and did a damn good job.